


i can tell that we are gonna be friends

by marquisdegayaf



Category: In the Heights - Miranda
Genre: Kid Fic, they are first grades and im love them, vanessa is a grumpy seven year old shes the best, wonderful brave smart girls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 09:11:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8885173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marquisdegayaf/pseuds/marquisdegayaf
Summary: nina and vanessa start first grade.





	

**Author's Note:**

> listen to we are gonna be friends by the white stripes while or after reading this maybe it helps

Vanessa arrives on day one of first grade with something to prove. She looks around at the neon pile of plastic and toy pianos and other children who just seem so happy and so carefree and hates them. Hates them all. Hates their ability to forget everything. She can’t forget anything. She holds anything and everything close to her heart and cannot, will not let go.

Vanessa sits down on the stupid garish pink carpet next to stupid Nina stupid Rosario with her stupid puffy pigtails and stupid blue dungarees. Stupid Nina stupid Rosario turns around and gives her a stupid massive smile which looks like it’s made of stupid sunshine and rainbows. Vanessa’s mouth twitches slightly, as if she might smile, but screws it into a glare. Stupid Nina stupid Rosario looks confused for a moment, but then just shrugs and keeps smiling. Carefree. Vanessa tries to hate her.

The teacher’s name is Mali. She has pretty brown eyes and blue in her hair. Vanessa wonders if she could ever have pretty brown eyes and blue in her hair. Mali asks each of them to stand up and say their name, their favorite colour and where they live. A boy with a dinosaur t-shirt scrambles up and practically shouts “my name’s Jose Mendoza n’ soy Mexicano n’ that means I was born in Mexico City! My favourite colour is magenta!” Little Julio Sanchez mumbles something about magenta not being a real colour and Jose sticks his tongue at him. Mali threatens them with timeout and they shut up promptly. Vanessa rolls her eyes at both of them. They’re so stupid. She wants to go home. 

Nina jumps up, unperturbed, and clasps her hands together in excitement. Vanessa by no means thinks that it’s kinda sweet. Not at all. Nina takes a deep breath and speaks in a sweet, sing-song voice: “I’m Nina Camila Rosario. My most favouritist colour is blue, but-” she looks over at Vanessa and her orange dress, “-I like orange, too. I live here, in the heights, but my mami and papi were born in Puerto Rico. In PR there is sunshine and flowers, an’ it never snows ‘cause the sun ‘so bright in the sky! An’ my mami say that when it rains it’s ‘cause the sky be cryin’ an-”  
“That’s tonto!” Everyone’s head, including Vanessa’s, whips round to look at a small bow with dark, wavy hair in the corner. His voice is squeaky and annoying and Vanessa’s eyes narrow. Mali opens her mouth to shut him down but he yelps out again: “the sky ain’t got no feelin’! You’re a baby!” Nina’s smile fully slips for the first time that day. Her eyes fill with tears. Vanessa does not like that look one bit. She stands up herself and points at the wavy haired boy.  
“You’re the tonto cabeza! Y’can't just be puttin’ her down like that! Who raised you?” 

The classroom of thirty six and seven year olds is silent. The thirty four year old woman in charge of them is silent. Everyone is stunned at the sight of Vanessa, in her orange dress and with yellow bows in her hair, staring down the boy with the wavy hair. She crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow before she speaks:  
“Well? You gonna say sorry t’ her? Do I gotta make you?” The boy is quivering. He stutters out an apology before sitting down as fast as possible. Vanessa looks around and catches Nina’s eye. She’s smiling a soft, watery smile and looking straight at Nessa, who suddenly feels warm everywhere. Mali asks Nina politely to sit down and then tells Vanessa to introduce herself while she’s up. She nods, flicks her hair over her shoulder and speaks, clearly and with confidence. “I’m Vanessa Otilia Garcia. I’m from a lotta different places, but what matters is that I live with my mami and papi in the heights. My favourite colour is orange, but-”, she thinks about Nina stupid Rosario’s sweet watery smile and realises that, “-but I like blue a lot, as well.” When she sits down Nina is grinning at her, and for the first time that day she smiles back. 

The rest of the day is writing letters, painting pictures, watching the boys scrap and, closer to the end of the day, music time. Everyone sits on the carpet, grabs instruments and sings kumbaya and jerusalem all at the same time. It’s loud and messy but the kids love it. Vanessa had a drum and she’s beating it with all she’s worth. It’s therapeutic. She loves it. After a while Mali tells her to stop hitting it so hard so she throws down her drumsticks and scowls. Nina wanders over to her, squeezes her arm and shouts over the howls of kumbaya “gracias for making Jorge be quiet, V’nessa.” Nessa shrugs.  
“S’nothing. He was rude.”  
“Wanna walk home w’me today?” Nina looks so apprehensive. Vanessa can’t say no to her.  
“Sure.” Nina’s face lights up, when she speaks it’s intensely joyful:  
“Wanna be best friends?” She’s clutching Vanessa’s hand. It’s a little close for comfort. Vanessa gently moves her hand out of Nina’s and laughs it off:  
“Cool it, curly. I’ll get back t’ya on that. But walkin’ sounds good.” Nina’s smile doesn’t slip, she just nods and skips back to her mini piano.

At the end of the day Vanessa stands awkwardly by the door as Nina hugs every one of her horde of friends goodbye. Vanessa can’t imagine hugging that many people without wanting to lie down for like three hours afterward. She clings to the straps of her backpack and taps her foot until Nina swans over to her, picks up her own yellow backpack, links Vanessa’s arm and pulls her out the door. It’s still light out so they walk home through the park, chasing the birds and practising somersaults on the soft grass. They shin up trees and hide, watching people pass by and making up stories about them.  
“What about him?”  
“He’s a secret vampire.”  
“Really?” Nina looks terrified.  
“Yeah. But he also kosher.”  
“Kosher? Like no pigs? No blood?”  
“Yeah. So he gotta bite vegetables ‘n stuff.”  
“Really?”  
“Really.”  
“Woah.” She’s spellbound. Vanessa revels in it.

They try to catch butterflies and fail miserably. They chase a shiny beetle to a rock where they discover a worm carcass, which royally grosses them both out so they turn and run into the playground. Nina pushes Vanessa on the swings, so high that she screeches and laughs so hard it hurts.  
“Yo, Nina, I can see my house from up here!”  
“For real?”  
“Yeah!” Nina gives her a final hard push which launched her to the same level as the swing’s frame. With a final scream Vanessa lets go of the handles and flies through the air, arms out. She lands on her hands and knees, scraping both, but she doesn’t care because Nina is raving about how cool it was. They run amok in the playground for a while before noticing that yes, it is in fact getting dark and yes, Nina’s mami y papi will be freaking out if she’s not home pronto so yes, they’ve gotta run. And run they do, through the park and deeper into the heights. Past the piraguero, past the big school, down the high street, past the salon and to the dispatch. Nina waves her goodbye with a smile yards wide, whereas Vanessa just offers a little shy one in Nina’s direction before turning on her heels and running home with one even bigger than Nina’s.

When she gets home Vanessa is still glowing. She puts the pasta on for cena while still smiling. She puts a wash on and hangs up her clothes while still smiling. She props her mom’s head up with a pillow and brings her a glass of water, all while still smiling. Her mom stirs and smiles at her:  
“Good day, querida?”  
“Mhm, mama. Made a friend.”  
“Que linda. I’m proud of you.” Vanessa just smiles more. She’s smiling when she eats cena, smiling gets into bed, smiling when she wakes up, smiling when she brushes her teeth and smiling when Nina knocks on her door, ready for the walk to school. She’s made a friend and for the first time she lets herself let go, just a little bit.

**Author's Note:**

> leave us a comment if you like!!!! thanks for reading!!!!!!! a xo


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